Monday, August 25, 2008

Ok the time bandit was at it again....I can't remember a time when life happened so fast. I remember being a little girl thinking that the days passed way too slow, and now that I am older (notice I didn't say wiser...LOL) they are flying by in a minute...Last week was the first week of school for the kids and my first week in kindergarten. OH MY!!! They are so tiny and cute!!!! I started out with 18 sweeties and we ability group kids in my school so we had to test this little ones and get them with the right teacher. I have the kids on the low end of the spectrum so my class is smaller with 11 kids. I have to tell you they are sweet and so darn cute!! They are learning their letters and names. The first week was hard and nerve wracking but we had a great day today. I also have an interactive white board (They are also called SMART Boards) and the kids get to use these too. We used it today and I will be using it everyday in my classroom. It really gets the kids involved in their learning. They love using it. I haven't been sewing or quilting much because I get home and I am so tired. I didn't get home tonight from school until 6pm. I am still trying to get use to the new grade level and how things get done with the little ones. Prior to this I have taught second and 4th grades and you really have to change your thinking style with the little kids...Since we have a 3 day weekend coming up I am hoping to get the camera charged up and the quilting machine working to get some more ufo's completed. I have the baby quilt for my neice done and I machine sewed the binding on last night but that was a far as I got. I hope to start working on that this week to get it in the mail by Saturday. I guess that is it for today. I will write again this week but keep reading!!! and let me know what you think. I know some have said the background color was blue and I am not sure how that happened because it was tan so I changed it and it should be ok now. Let me know.Happy Daze!!!Marie

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Well we had no school today due to Tropical Storm Fay.This means we have to go to school an extra day in November during Thanksgiving break. It really wasn't that bad for us. We did lose power for about 2 hours but that was it. I spent most of the time reading my book and finishing it. I was glad I worked on stuff for school yesterday after work. Yesterday was the first day of school and I was overwhelmed to say the least. The kids are cute ( I teach kindergarten) and we are in the middle of testing them to see where they are placed within the 8 kindergarten classes. We ability group the students which is better for them. We have done it for 2 years and I can see the benefit of this. I have a good group of kids but I won't know for sure who will be in my class until the end of the week. I brought my papers home yesterday and worked on them as I had a feeling we might lose power sometime today.Fay was predicted to be a Category 1 Hurricane but it lost more strength and that was good. I am sure we will be back to school tomorrow but haven't heard the official word just yet. I thought about quilting upstairs today but after being on my feet all day yesterday I think I am going to stay downstairs and sew a little and work on the computer.I need to recharge the camera and then I will post pictures of the last 2 finishes I had. This weekend I have set aside to work on more UFO's. Hope you all stay dry and safe!!Marie

Saturday, August 16, 2008

I have been at school all week getting ready for next Monday and tonight. Tonight we had open house at my school and I got to meet 12 of my 18 kindergarten kids. What a great bunch of children!! I was nervous about starting school on Monday since I haven't taught kindergarten before but after seeing these great kids I am so excited. The parents are a good bunch and I also got to see many of my former students from other years. It was a long day but a great night.I came home to watch the Olympics!!! GO Michael Phelps in Swimming!!! WOW!!! What a great race right?? I can't wait to watch tomorrow night. They just had a great interview with him and Mark Spitz from 1972 and I remember watching Mark win those 7 gold medals!!! (I am old LOL)I know many teachers are getting ready for back to school!! I am looking forward to it. I haven't been quilting much this week. I have 4 new quilts (ok not new but they are UFO's that will get done soon) ready for the quilting machine and I have done a lot of work on a UFO cross stitch project. I have one small corner to finish and then I can start adding some detail work to it. I hope to do some of that tomorrow.I think we have a hurricane heading this way and her name is Fay so I need to start watching the news to see where she is heading. Keep good thoughts that she doesn't hit land!!!Marie

Saturday, August 9, 2008

This quilt is my Northwoods Quilt in progress. It was started well over 12 years ago as a block swap on AOL. Several ladies got together to swap blocks about life in the northwoods complete with moose. I am proud to say we are still together and thru email keep in touch. Sadly though a few of our group have passed away but their friendship still lives on in our quilts. We swapped many blocks over the years and I have a Santa quilt waiting to be quilted and also a 1930's fabric swap of star blocks also waiting to be quilted. I hope to get more sewn on this one today. I still have a large pile of blocks to add.

Tell me what you think about it. I had the center part done and on the design wall for a while, maybe even a year so today I added the brown solid border and then started sewing the blocks together for the other 4 borders. Sewing this is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together because the blocks are all sizes. I love how its coming out.

Tell me what you think? This is my last weekend before I go back to school on Monday so I thought I should spend it doing something I want. Last night while I watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics I worked on a cross stitch UFO too. It's coming along and tonight I will work on it some more. I tried today to do some work for school but ran out of scotch tape so

Friday, August 8, 2008

Hi everyone.....today I finished another (small) UFO....while I was cleaning my studio I came across a small block that was in the process of being hand-quilted. I only needed to quilt about 4 more lines. I did that before my meeting last night and today I cut the back of the pillow and made an envelope back. I am posting the picture here.

I also worked at school today and remembered to take a picture of my hallway bulletin board. I got the idea for the board from another teacher posted on the internet but I can't remember where. I thought it was a great idea and this is what my girls came up with.

This is a close up picture of the ants. Aren't they cute!! They were really hard to cut out but worth it. My principal loved the idea. This is in the main hallway where there is a lot of traffic so I know lots of people will see it. Once I have my complete correct list of students that will be in my class I will add their names to the ants.

This is a picture of the "picnic" with Reading, Math, Science and Social Studies being served. The cups are stapled to the board and are 3D. The napkins are real as are the spoons. I think I am going to have to tape the spoons to the napkins though as I think with walking traffic in the hallway they might get "lost"!

Well that is all for today. I am going to see what other things I can finish (I also have cross stitch stuff that needs to be done!!) while I watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics!!! Go USA!!!!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

I am going to be showing you why I haven't been posting in the past few days. I have been finishing some quilting projects. One was from 1996!!! I am also happy to say that 2 of these have already been donated to the Susan Komen Breast Cancer office here in town. My daughters and I brought a bunch of quilts over to them yesterday. One was a large queen size quilt that I hope they can use to raise money for cancer research and the others were small lap quilts for the cancer patients. I remember how cold those rooms are when they are getting chemo! I am going to be making more lap size quilts and trying to use up some fabric around here.

This is the sayings quilt. Each person made a block and then wrote their favorite saying on the quilt block. It was done in all colors of plaids. I loved how it came out and this was one of the cancer donation quilts.

This is a pink/green block of the month quilt from Joann Fabrics.However, I have no idea what happened to 3 of the 12 blocks so instead of keeping it a UFO forever I only put 9 of the 12 blocks together and made a smaller quilt. I like how it came out though and this was also one of the cancer quilts.

This is a row by row sewing quilt. I can't remember who all made the blocks but on one row you can see a tomato and a sewing machine....the fabrics are designs involving fabrics and quilting. I have sewn a sleeve on the back of this one and I am going to hang it in my studio upstairs. It's nice to have another one completed.

I also started the baby quilt for my neice. She is having a boy so I got out all my blues and made a tossed nine patch. I need to add a border to it and then it will be ready to be quilted. I hope to have that done this weekend.

Today I am also going to be seeing what kinds of blocks I have that need to get put into quilts. I have 3 UFO's ready upstairs to be quilted. One is a queen and I think I am going to wait on that one for a while and work on the 2 smaller ones. I also have some others I need to find backing fabric for. I have it in my stash but need to clean the mess in my studio first to get to the fabric. So that will be on my list for today and tonight.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Today I worked on all sorts of things. First, I played on the computer and got all the email caught up. That alone took a while. I belong to several lists on yahoo and got all of it read and organized. Then I cheated a little and played a computer game. We have all the Diner Dash games and my teenage daughters have me hooked on the games and today I tried to pass a hard level but no dice. Maybe another day.After lunch I decided to work on some UFO's. Now for those of you that read my blog and aren't quilters, a UFO is an Unfinished Fabric Object and in my case that is mostly quilts. I have about 14 upstairs in the studio that the tops are done but they need to be quilted. I quilted two today and came downstairs and put the bindings on them by machine. Tomorrow night while I watch Law & Order: CI and Army Wives I will stitch those bindings down by hand.I also started cleaning out my dining room of the school stuff. I have taught 2nd and 4th grades and have books for those. But this year I am going to be teaching kindergarten and I have to sort thru all my books to see what I have for the little ones. I took two boxes of books and stored them in the studio upstairs for now. I also got a bunch of stuff ready to take to school this week. I am so excited about finishing some things and organizing stuff around the house. I have a problem sticking with one thing, I guess I am a little restless so I keep moving from project to project. I am trying to get lots done and I don't want to waste time working on one project.This is my last week off before school officially starts for me on August 11th. The kids don't go back until August 18th and both my girls are ready for school. So am I .....That is about it for now. I am going to go sit in my rocking chair and read my Elm Creek Quilters book. I am reading the Runaway Quilt and I am getting all excited about handquilting my small Underground Railroad quilt. I also have a Santa quilt I want to hand quilt so I need to figure out which one I will do first. Probably the Underground Railroad quilt as it's smaller.Ta-ta for now!!!Marie